A Few Thoughts About Performance Reports

For those of you new to the grant world, grant recipients are usually required to submit some sort of performance report to the funding source to give information about how the grant is being used and how successful the grantee has been in meeting goals and objectives. These performance reports are due at least annually. Some programs require them twice a year. Others require them quarterly.

Here are some of my issues with performance reports:

1) They are usually due at a strange time of year, before most outcome data are available. I understand that funders want to use the information to make decisions about continuation funding for the coming year, but how useful is that when most of the data are missing because they are not yet available? The effect it has on grantees is very stressful. They worry that they won't be refunded because they don't have data, but everyone knew the formal outcome data wouldn't be available until later. My favorite example of this is standardized test scores for schools. Students take the tests in the spring. Results are available in the summer. Grant performance reports are due in the spring. Grantees are forced to fill out all sorts of forms that mean nothing because all they say (in many different ways, in several boxes) is that the data are not yet available. Then they have to fill them out again and submit them as "updates" in the fall once they have the data. Isn't there a better way to do this?

2) Everyone acts like the reports are unexpected, when they aren't. As an evaluator, I have many grantees who don't want to make time to meet with me to discuss evaluation throughout the year, but they panic and want me to drop everything when they get a notice that their report is due in a few weeks. If you keep up with your evaluation as you go, the report is no big deal. If you wait until the report is due to talk about how you're doing, there will be panic and stress. There is a better way.

3) Funders keep the report guidelines and due dates a secret. OK, maybe not a total secret, but I find it very annoying that at least a due date can't be published months in advance. Would it hurt anybody to let people have some planning time? Is there a good reason why the deadline date has to be withheld until 3 weeks before the report is due? If so, please share the reason with all of us. If not, please stop it.

4) Report formats are becoming more and restrictive. It used to be that a grantee could report their outcomes and progress following a basic narrative template. Nowadays, more and more funders are requesting restrictive data sheets and limiting the amount of narrative a grantee can provide. I understand the need to force people to report both quantitative and qualitative data - and sometimes a form is the best way to do that. I understand that the people reviewing the reports want to minimize the amount of time they need to spend reviewing the reports. I also understand that reducing paperwork requirements on grantees is, in general, a very good thing. However, in many cases, the minimized reporting formats actually prevent the grantee from fully explaining what they have done, why, and what the outcomes were. How is that a good thing?

Alright, that's enough whining from me (for now). Back to my reports......

One Grantee's Rocky Road of Grant Implementation

I am working with a client to evaluate a grant project that has multiple implementation sites. This is not unusual. In fact, it is extremely common with grants awarded to school districts for multiple school sites to be involved. There are other, non-school situations in which multiple sites are also common.

The problem with this current client is that some of the sites are not implementing the grant as they should. You might think that this is not much of problem, except for the fact that those sites are putting all of the participating sites at risk. In this case, there is a required assessment (required by the funding source, not by this friendly evaluator) that some of the sites have not administered. Their lack of compliance could very well cause all of the participating sites to lose their funding.

So why don't they just do it?

Who knows? It could be that they are too busy. It could be that they really do not understand the importance of it. It could be that they never really wanted to be involved with this project to begin with so they aren't going to inconvenience themselves to comply.

Here's the real problem - In an effort to save a buck and reserve as much of the budget as possible for direct services, the grantee chose not to hire a grant coordinator. As a result, there is no one pulling all the pieces together, no one riding herd on the sites to comply with grant requirements, no one "coordinating" the effort.

This is a common grant implementation error. An effort to save a buck may result in all the money being lost.

It seems a little short-sighted, doesn't it?

Success is in the Details

Tomorrow is a big grant deadline for us. This competition requires an online submittal through http://www.grants.gov/, so we're trying to get one of these grants finished and uploaded tonight so we won't have too much to do tomorrow.

Whenever I am at this stage in the grant writing process (final proofreading, editing, assembly, etc.) I am amazed at how important the details are. Not only are the details in the narrative extremely important (making sure all the numbers are correct, matching the project activities to the budget, etc.), but it's also important to watch for details involved in assembling the appendices and following the assembly checklist.

The problem is that when you get to this final stage in the grant preparation process, you think you are finished, but the reality is that you are far from finished. This is when the greatest mistakes are made because you have let down your guard and you think the hard work is done. It is at this stage that I force myself to act against my instincts. I want to rush through and slap it together now, but I force myself to slow down - take it step by step - focus on one small task at a time. I check my documents thoroughly. I check them again. I ask someone else to check them. And then just when I am ready to submit the proposal, I stop and check them again.

Obsessive? Maybe. Successful? Absolutely!

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The Life of a Consultant

Ten years ago, when I left the world of public education to start my new life as a consultant, I thought it would be so much fun not be tied to an office and a regular schedule. I thought the travel would be glamorous and full of exciting adventures. Here's the verdict ten years later:

• Not having a schedule imposed on me by someone else is fantastic! I can arrange to attend many of my children's school functions and that's great. On the other hand, my time is not completely my own. There are deadlines to meet, and during our busy seasons, that means lots of evenings and weekends. Still, the freedom is the best part of what I do.
• Traveling is not as glamorous as most people think it is. There's a lot of driving, hours in airports, luggage to haul around, and schedules to shuffle. As for hotels....some are better than others. I brought bed bugs home from one hotel several years ago that cost eight months and $10,000 to eradicate. Yeah, not so glamorous.
• This life is full of exciting adventures. I get to meet interesting people doing very fascinating and creative things. I have the opportunity to help them be successful, and I love sharing in their success and enthusiasm.

So, overall, this is a great life! The traveling is just part of the price I pay for the wonderful benefits.